Woman continues search for owner of lost ring
Woman continues friend's quest to return item
BEN EOIN — A Cape Breton woman is not only searching for the owner of a ring lost 20 years ago, but the love story surrounding it.
Sharon King, 78, of East Bay, is continuing a search her close friend Linda Mercer started more than two decades ago.
“There are two sets of initials on it,” said King. “There is also ‘00' in-between, which could mean the year 2000, the millennium.”
King said she was friends with Linda Mercer since attending Sydney Academy together more than 60 years ago.
“We've been friends forever and ever,” she said.
Twenty years ago Mercer found the diamond ring at the former Woolco in Sydney River.
The gold band has a ruby in the middle with two diamonds on one side — a big one and a smaller one — and three diamonds on the other side, all different sizes.
Mercer took it home, determined to find the owner. Without social media at that time to help her, she tried the best way possible to find the owner. King remembers Mercer called the manager of Woolco and he took her name and number and also putting an announcement on the radio, hoping someone would call the station.
No one came forward and, in the meantime, Mercer put the ring in a safe place in hopes of reuniting it with the owner someday.
Sadly Mercer died eight years ago.
Time went on and life changed. King said one day the topic of the ring came up with family.
At first a decision was made to perhaps donate it to a charity. Every year the Hospice
Society would hold a pop-up shop on Sydney's Esplanade, selling second-hand donated items. The ring was given to them to put in their jewelry section. The volunteers had it appraised and discovered it was valued at about $850. Realizing they would never get much for it with the sale they conduct, they returned it.
King decided at that point, knowing how much it would have meant to her late friend to find the owner, to continue that journey.
“I guess I made it my project,” she said. “If I was in that situation I would want someone to try and find me.”
King said COVID-19 has changed people's lives, keeping us in isolation with family. She wondered if during the times of family togetherness, the topic of the ring might have been brought up by someone.
She's also anxious to hear the story behind this ring which, because of the two sets of initials, appears to be an engagement ring or wedding band. If she suffered such a sentimental loss, King said she'd not only be devastated but would always wonder what had happened to it.
“There has to be a tremendous history behind that ring and I'd love to know what that history is,” she said, adding many people have been involved with this ring over the years.
King hopes someone will remember if a friend or family talked about this ring two decades ago. She hopes after all these years to not only find the owner but that it will be someone who wants to get it back.
“It will mean a lot to me to find the owner for many reasons,” she said. “For Linda, for the person that lost it and for me as well, because I'd want someone to do that for me too.”